He was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best Director for Henry V, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Hamlet. He has directed and starred in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays, including Henry V (1989), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Othello (1995), Hamlet (1996), and As You Like It (2006). In 2020, he was ranked in 20th place on The Irish Times ' list of Ireland's greatest film actors. He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2012 Birthday Honours, and was given Freedom of the City in his native Belfast in 2018. He has won an Academy Award, four BAFTAs, two Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and an Olivier Award. He has directed and starred in numerous projects on stage and screen.
Born in Belfast and raised primarily in Berkshire, Branagh trained at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and has served as its president since 2015. Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh ( / ˈ b r æ n ə/ BRAN-ə born 10 December 1960) is a British actor and filmmaker.